The University of Liverpool (UOL) is an institution that delivers remarkable research and education. With values of ambition, innovation, inclusivity and responsibility, UOL continues to foster a culture of creativity and intellectual exploration.
We spoke to Michelle Keeley-Adamson, Governance Officer at UOL, to explore why they chose Convene to streamline their governance processes.
Please describe your board and management structure and how you use convene within this structure.
At the minute, we use Convene for all of our senior-level, centrally managed, committees at the University of Liverpool. These committees are managed by our team (the Governance team) and include the University Council, Senate, and Senior Leadership Team.
Why did you decide to implement a portal and why did you choose Convene?
First off, we had a growing committee portfolio in our team, and we needed something to help manage the administration of meetings and modernise our approach. But I think more broadly in the sector, there’s been quite a big appetite to procure a board software.
We wanted to find something that saved us time when we were preparing meeting packs, but that would give us the opportunity for our members to collaborate outside of the meeting and something that could help support our security requirements.
We were looking, specifically, for something with annotation tools and we wanted to find something that would help us enhance our document security as well.
What was the situation like before Convene was implemented?
It was nowhere near as streamlined as what we’re doing now. We used to build packs manually using MS Word and PDF software. We would upload this to a SharePoint site, edit the permissions if needed, and share with all of our members.
Our previous process was time consuming and it meant that if we needed to make a minor change, say to a timing, or to add a new version of a paper, that we would have to start the process over, putting all of the document navigation links back in, before recirculating the paper pack manually. We were relying on our users using the latest version of the pack, and it ran the risk of multiple versions of the paper pack being present.
Ultimately, creating and distributing a pack would take a lot of time.
Our old process also meant that our committee members didn’t have any means of annotating paperwork or collaborating with any other committee members outside of using email. Being able to get everything into one single environment and enhance our process has been a positive change for us.
In what ways have Convene improved your meeting process?
From an administrative point of view, it saved us hours of time, per committee meeting, especially for long and complex packs, for example, for meetings like Senate, Council and our Senior Leadership team who are receiving multiple papers that have been through our committee structure. It’s really helped us streamline things.
Having the 24/7 support available from Convene for our members has also been a huge help in supporting our meeting process and improving efficiency.
For committee members, I think it’s made it easier to access the information that they need quickly and to collaborate seamlessly using the annotation tools, which also helps to save time during meetings.
The search function has also helped. Members can quickly seek out information from previous meetings for themselves, rather than having to approach the team to request paperwork on specific topics.
Are there any other features that you find particularly beneficial for, specifically you, both pre and post meeting?
Pre-meeting, the permission controls that Convene offer, and the granular level at which we are able to set permissions for papers has been a huge benefit to us.
Also, building the agenda in advance of the meeting and being able to preview them without publishing is great as it means we can then make any final tweaks required before pressing the publish button.
Being able to quickly make changes to the agenda and paperwork is another huge benefit to us. For example, if a presenter is no longer attending, if a timing has changed, or if we have spotted a typo post-publish, we can quickly edit and republish the pack without affecting the experience of our users.
On that note, where timings are concerned, the automated calculation of time slots has been a huge time saving advantage – gone are the days of working out timings manually.
We’ve also found that we’ve been using the draft minutes function in a slightly unique way and download it to use to prepare our chairs agendas.
Post-meeting, we’ve encountered quite a few additional benefits, too. For example, the ability to extract a complete, clean version of pack, so that we can store information in line with our internal retention guidance. In addition, we’ve made use of scheduling tools, notification tools, and the document library function to share additional information with our members as needed.
How has the enhancement to track changes improved your workflow?
The ability for our members to see track changes is a key part of how we review documentation in meetings. Now, our members can see proposed changes made to reports like policies and Terms of Reference for committees clearly, alongside clean copies, without us having to duplicate administrative processes. We simply upload the track change document alongside a clean copy.
Has the Convene web functionality helped reduce your IT team’s workload in terms of installing and maintaining the app?
I think so, yes. There are a few users who now prefer to use the web-based version, and can save time as they don’t need to update an app.
However, I would say that it has been helpful that Convene’s Support Team have notified our team when there are upgrades available to the app. It’s meant that we can quickly notify users that updates are available.
How do your Convene users perceive this feature that provides direct access to the platform through the web version of the app?
We’ve only quite recently rolled this out and it’s been received positively. I think it helps with an alternate way for our members to engage with the papers. It’s particularly helpful for external committee members who might not be able to download the app for technical reasons.
We’ve also noticed that there’s additional features on the web version. We particularly like the countdown timer, but we’ve also received good feedback from our members on the addition of the scroll bar in the preview window of the paper pack
How has using the agenda planner saved you time?
Each part of this function has saved us time. We’re not manually building and linking up an agenda from a Word document anymore and then saving as a PDF. Instead, we can do it in the back end of the system.
The nature of working in governance is that there will often be changes required, sometimes, at short notice, and the agenda planner has meant we can administer these changes seamlessly. An example would be if we needed to move an agenda item earlier, we can now click and drag it to where we need it go, and everything is automatically updated, from the time slot to the agenda numbering.
We’re also able to upload new versions of papers if required or add to the paper pack with additional information and web links, or to move agenda items to a future meeting if we need to.
I think it’s allowed for quite a professional and seamless experience for our committee members as well. We undertake all of this work behind the scenes and then our members can open a clean, professional pack. All of this saves time but also supports the way we work in the team.
How have your board members found using Convene?
They found it generally to be a positive change from the previous system. Most of our users have found it easy to use. We’ve had feedback that it’s quite intuitive.
I think with any new system, there’s always a culture change needed and it takes time to embed. So, we are still working on embedding it fully. We’ve used Convene for just over a year now, but it’s important to recognise that for some of our members, they may have only used the system for four meetings in the cycle.
This has been supported by Convene’s training offer, and it’s been a real benefit to our team in ensuring everyone is fully confident with using the new software, and the Support team have been helpful in responding to the needs of our users and it has also helped us to identify what specific training needs there are for our users so that we can create targeted comms internally.
More generally, I think it’s important to note that different organisations will have their own processes, and we’ve been able to create our own internal guidance for members to support this.
What features are most used by your board members?
At the moment, accessing the pack in the platform and using the annotation tools are the most used features by our committee members.
We’re really keen to explore some of the other functions as we continue our roll out, in particular, Review Rooms, Resolutions, and the Action List functions. So far, we’ve trialled Review Rooms for a paper approval via circulation, which would traditionally have been administered by email. We’ve had positive feedback from our members, and it’s meant that everything is in one place, and users aren’t having to go back and look over email chains to see comments from other committee members.
Is there an intention to roll out Convene to more committees?
Our team’s portfolio changes based on the University’s governance requirements.
But, throughout the academic year, we may find that we need to set up additional meetings in the form of a working group, or temporary sub-group for one of our committees, and we can easily administer this by setting up new groups and meeting types.
How has Convene made your board more agile and better able to respond to change?
This comes back to the collaboration and agenda set-up tools again, really. I think it’s made us better able to respond to the committee requirements more quickly.
There may be times when we need to hold an extraordinary meeting, or to administer an out of cycle approval, and it means that we can do this from one central place with ease and reduce the risk of information being lost in e-mail chains. Everything is there for our members in one place.
How user-friendly have you found Convene?
I think both versions of the app and the web-based version are intuitive and user friendly for both administrators and for our meeting participants at all levels.
How is Convene performing for you, security wise?
The security aspects of Convene have been a huge benefit for us in using the system. We had great support during the technical implementation phase from Convene, who worked alongside our IT department and ensured it was possible to integrate with Single Sign On (SSO).
I think for us as administrators, the key thing is being able to edit permissions quickly, with confidence, and at a granular level in the paper packs.
It’s been critical for us as administrators to have full control over the back end of the system, from setting up and disabling accounts, to administering 2FA, to managing meeting permissions. It’s really supported the way we work in our team.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
I think the other thing that’s important to mention is sustainability. We made some ambitious environmental plans within our Sustainability Strategy, and this included a commitment to reduce our carbon footprint across all activities. The uptake of Convene amongst committee members has positively supported a reduction in printing and it will continue to play a key role with our paperless meeting strategy moving forward.
It’s been a positive experience in terms of interactions with the staff at Convene and the level of support that we receive. The check-ins that we have with Sharlene and Diego have been instrumental in ensuring that the roll out has been a success.
For us as administrators, we are enjoying using the platform and are excited to explore more features that Convene has to offer!